


The World Ended Yesterday

by trashcatpaige



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, Blinky is a good dad, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everything is one Fire, Except Kanjigar, Found Families, Gen, Give Jim a hug 2020, Identity Issues, Jim is tired, Jim lives off of caffeine and justice, Jim steals the amulet from himself, Look how much Trauma we can fit into one boy!, Near Death Experiences, Post Wizards, Saving everyone this time around, Sorry Not Sorry, Time Travel Fix-It, Troll Jim Lake Jr.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25936579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashcatpaige/pseuds/trashcatpaige
Summary: Jim has a habit of balancing the weight of the world on his shoulders...But this time, he's doing it alone. On the way back to the future, Jim is separated from his friends and thrown into an alternate timeline that is not his own. Given a second chance at saving the world, Jim has to make a choice: he could sit back and watch the future play put like its supposed to, ignoring all the death and destruction wrought by Gunmar and Morgana-Or he could intercept the amulet from his past self so he could live a normal life with normal human problems and stop all the bad things from happening in the future.The choice is obvious, really...
Comments: 70
Kudos: 219





	1. The World Ended Yesterday

**Author's Note:**

> I refuse to accept Wizards as canon without being able to write my own time-travel fix it. You can't not when the fandom has canon time travel!

A year ago, Jim would never have imagined he’d be flying on a floating castle. He probably wouldn’t have thought Merlin was an actual wizard either, or that he would be fighting trolls in wars that spanned centuries. 

The green portal lit the way to their future, towards Jim’s own death. He held Claire’s hand tighter, but still, his stone skin could not feel her warmth. Another thing that he had lost in this war. Or should he say, an endless cycle of wars he somehow kept getting sucked into.

Past Jim probably would not have expected to be changed into… _this_ too.

“Are you okay, Jim?” Claire asked, concern tinting her voice.

Jim froze, and Claire’s grip tightened. _Stupid!_ Jim thought to himself, forcing a smile. But Claire’s brows were already knitting, suspicion blooming on her face before he could even open his mouth and stutter out an answer.

“I’m -”

An explosion rocked the castle, knocking the duo away from each other. Douxie screamed, grasping for control of the building so it didn’t capsize. Could a floating castle capsize? It wasn’t a comforting thought, one Jim shoved it aside, rolling to his feet with the momentum of swaying stone.

Steve wailed as he slid over the side, catching a bar of railing before the castle could right iself. Jim quickly hopped on the rail alongside him, grabbing his forearm and swinging him back over to safety. 

“What’s happening?” Claire shouted. Another quake rocked the castle. Behind them, a wall from the main building began to sink down, collapsing on itself as though it was- 

Melting.

Jim grabbed one of the golden railings, now twisted and bent away from the stone, pulling it up from its root. He charged forward, pulling Claire down to the ground with Steve. Jim dug his foot into a shattered hunk of the castle, bringing it up just in time to save them from a blast of molting lava.

“Douxie! Bellroc came back!” Black-twisted embers exploded before them, shattering the ground and tearing a vast crater in front of the makeshift shield. Fire and ash and screaming, a wave of malevolent magic grasping and tearing and - the boulder protecting them shattered.

Heat shimmered around them, and only then, Jim could see how much _hate_ someone wearing a mask could project.

Bellroc stood before them, their mask had been smashed by Deya not long ago, but now it was twisted back together by tendrils of bright red magic. The eyes on their pauldrons swivel manically. Bellroc floated before them, their staff glowing menacingly.

“Jim, we have to-” 

Claire didn’t get to finish her sentence, as Steve and her were torn away from him by a dark aura that enveloped the two, hurling them over the side of the ship. Douxie rushed forward, bringing up his own bright blue magic to catch them.

“Go!” Douxie shouted, “you have to stop Bellroc before he drops us out of the sky!”

“Got it,” Jim replied, rushing towards the burning figure. He ignored the twinge in his chest from the cursed shard He launched himself at the figure with the railing held tight, flipping forward to bring as much momentum down on the being as possible.

They clashed and a shockwave of force exploded between them, Bellroc’s dark magic tainting the night blood red. 

“How dare you?” Bellroc hissed in Jim’s face. Jim snarled back. “You’ve ruined our plans! I will not wait hundreds of years for them to come to fruition! Not like my foolish siblings!”

The heated metal between Jim’s fingers started to twist and bend with a combination of Bellroc’s magic and the force of his enhanced grip. _Oh, how he missed Daylight._ Jim grimaced as the rail began to crumble into a ball, forced back to his body as Bellroc loomed even closer.

“While Skrael may be content with resurrecting our Green Knight and Champion when the time comes, I won’t be sated until I see your rotting corpses. I am the harbinger of your destruction! We will remake the world in our image, and you will not be there to stand in the way again!” Another burst of magic sends Jim stumbling back, clenching the shard at his chest Agony coursed through his ribcage. Bellroc floated before him, horrible fake eyes churning in their sockets to where Douxie was busy setting the others safely back onto the ground.

“I will boil their eyes in their very skulls, as you watch, Merlin’s Creation.” Bellroc raised their staff again, fire blooming all over their body. 

“No!” Jim shouted, body moving before his mind could catch up. Ignoring the pain in his chest, he mustered whatever strength he had left, hurling himself at Bellroc.

Their bodies collided solidly, soaring over the edge of the castle and into the green miasma between times.

* * *

“Let go, you filthy-”

“Nope, not falling to my death today, thank you very much,” Jim quipped, holding on to Bellroc’s skeletal body. If the pulsing from the staff clenched tightly in Bellroc’s hand was any indicator, the mage was attempting to slow their freefall with magic.

Jim grappled over boney limbs, because _dang,_ eternal sorcerer or not, Bellroc had the physical integrity of a wooden desk. All hard, sharp edges. They were spiralling and Jim had no idea how high up they were. Not above the clouds anymore, but not at tree height yet. He needed a nice sweet spot between waking up with the back ache of a lifetime and shattering into a million pieces upon impact.

Would he shatter like a troll? Or would he break open like an egg? Jim was pretty sure he still retained some of his human gooey bits inside. Jim could practically hear Toby comparing him to a piece of hard candy.

Bellroc elbowed him in the ribs, snapping him back out of his thoughts.

“Hey, would you stop doing _that_ ?” Jim asked sharply, and Bellroc, did indeed stop doing _that._

But now Bellroc’s free arm locked around Jim’s body, pulling him tight against unrelenting armor. 

“Oh, that’s not good isn’t it?” Jim said to himself, voice pitching as Bellroc squeezed the air out of his lungs. The air shimmered with heat, hot enough that Jim felt it through his armor, sinking into stone skin. “Nope! Not good!” 

Jim pulled his legs up, contorting so he could slam his feet into Bellroc’s chest. They let go and Jim snatched Bellroc’s free arm to avoid falling backwards to his death. He dug his fingers into Bellroc’s arm and _wrenched_ upwards.

Jim could feel whatever Bellroc was made out of - be it bone, magic, or some mix of the two - _cracking_ apart under his fingers. He willed himself not to look at the damage he was causing. Jim was _not_ puking mid-air, even if he was certain he felt joints pulling apart.

Bellroc screamed, staff raised, the light at the tip reaching a fever pitch.

Jim let go, twisting his body to kick backward. He felt a leg collide with Bellroc’s side, sending them a good distance away, magic unable to keep them anchored in the air. 

A moment later, Bellroc exploded into a ball of fire, building heat finally combusting.

 _Bullet dodged,_ Jim thought blearily, numb with panic.

Until Bellroc swung his staff, magic enveloping Jim’s falling body. The arm Jim had mangled hung limp, connected only by a few tendrils of black viscera. There was no blood or bone, only inky, viscous icor. Their eyes glowed, lava spilling out from the mask’s eye sockets.

With a flick of Bellroc’s wrist, Jim was spiked into a throng of trees some distance below.

* * *

Jim hit the ground with a surge of dust and shattered stone. His armor had let out a final concussive burst of magic to cushion his fall, probably the last of the amulet’s reserves. Sharp, unrelenting pain seared through his body. His heart felt like it was being crushed, burned out of his body by the shard. His armor glowed weakly. Jim could practically feel it _dying_. The shot of alerting electricity it carried tapering off, leaving Jim exhausted. Like a caffeine crash after drinking ten cups of espresso. The fatigue hit him like a freight train. 

Jim’s eyelids began drooping. Pulling him under. Down _deep_ into the bliss of unconsciousness.

For a long moment, the only sound was the gentle rain of stone, leaves, and shards of wood clattering down around him. There was a slow, groaning creak of a tree overbalancing and then falling with a crash. Jim stayed where he was for another moment, shocked by the sudden reassertion of reality, and then he attempted to get to his elbows. 

He felt the heat first, eyes snapping open in panic. Jim quickly rolled out of the way of a blast of fire, scorching the untouched greenery around the crater his body had made in the forest.

Just as quickly, he was on the ground again. Something had collided with his skull, the world tipped sideways, and he heard nothing but ringing.

Jim rolled over, blurry vision resting on Bellroc.

“You have no idea what you have done, you- _you wretch_!” Bellroc bellowed, Jim struggling to piece together his words through the haze enveloping his mind. Something felt like it was loose in his head, rolling back and forth like a marble in a miniature pinball machine.

Bellroc pointed the staff at him, red tip coming to rest just below Jim’s nose. He could swear that magic had a scent. Like rainwater and electricity and ash… though the ash might just be part of Bellroc’s particular flavor of it all.

“Do you even know where we are?” Bellroc hissed, swinging his staff around again to gesture at their surroundings. Jim’s eyes were swimming, a trail of red light lingering briefly in the air; a neon string that Jim was sure his eyes weren’t keeping up with right.

“A forest?” Jim answered after Bellroc, feeling his jaw crack like bits were broken underneath his skin.

“No, you fool,” Bellroc hissed. “We are outside of our very time, in a universe not our own.”

Jim snapped back to reality really quick after that, mind racing. “What? How are we outside of time? How is that possible? How do we get back?”

“We don’t,” Bellroc said angrily, poking Jim in the chest with their staff. “We fell between time! Between the void of all that is everything. There is no undoing what does not exist! You cannot turn back time to un-eat an apple that was never there to begin with! And we-” Bellroc tapped Jim in the chest again, “are not meant to exist in this world.”

“What-” Jim stammered. What about Claire? His mom? Everyone he left behind wherever they were now? “So, we’re like in a parallel universe?”

“Yes, and there is no way back,” Bellroc said, continuing when Jim opened his mouth to argue. “No manner of magic can take us back to a future that does not come to pass. Even if it could, you would be but a doppelganger of this timeline’s Trollhunter. Not even your Merlin could help you now.”

“That’s impossible,” Jim argued futility. 

“Yet here we are, Merlin’s Creation,” Bellroc said mockingly, tendrils of magic twisting over the cursed shard in Jim’s chest.

Jim screamed.

“A waste of a good curse, but it will do no good outside of our time. I need your precious amulet for the ritual, and I will not search for it again.” Bellroc dug in cruelly, ripping the amulet and pierced shard from Jim’s chest, a black fluid following the pull of magic. It hovered in globs, shining with a toxic sheen around the amulet. It reminded him of oil spilled in a roadway puddle. “How does it feel? Knowing you will have nothing for the pathetic remainder of your life? That you will never be more than an extra here, a monster without a home? No one will _ever_ believe you. Even those you know here will never be who you left behind.”

Blackness was already creeping at the edges of Jim’s vision. His armor had faded away, leaving only his underclothes behind. The pressure in his chest was gone, but his blood sang, ice flowing through his veins, rather than the previous searing heat. The contrast was dizzying - _overwhelming._

“Now,” a voice said, but Jim couldn't focus anymore. Couldn’t remember what was happening. Who was speaking to him. He could feel the cold stickiness of morning fog surrounding them, filling his lungs with more frigid air. Freezing his insides further. The air around them, the cool grass under his armorless body, wet with dew… it was _cold._

“Lay here and _die._ ”


	2. Can you Steal from Yourself?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is it really stealing from yourself when you're an alternate version of you?
> 
> Or wherein, Jim makes a difficult decision.

Jim was woken by a stabbing pain engulfing his fingertips. He was fully conscious in half a second, eyes flying open too fast, blinding him before they could adjust to the sunlight streaming through the trees. At first, he thought he burnt his fingers on a pan. He had been having a nice dream where he was making breakfast for his mom. 

Reality wasn’t that kind. 

Jim glared at the innocent beam of light shining on the dirt where his hand had been lying, then back to his fingers. He flexed them, making sure they weren’t sun-stained. Still made of stone, still vulnerable to the sunlight like any other Troll. What he would give to see skin again, instead of the hard shell he was left with.

Jim pushed himself up off the ground, stumbling his way to the edge of the forest clearing. His knees gave out soon after, dropping him to the dead patches of mud that sat in eternal darkness, foliage too thick to feed any grass that tried to grow there.

The world around him was swimming, his heart was pounding in his chest, and every time his eyes closed, his last memories of the floating castle replayed in his head. Thoughts on what he could've done differently swirled in his mind, unrelenting. He should have made sure Bellroc was really down for the count before trying to go back to the future. He could have found another way to stop them, instead of recklessly throwing them both off of the edge. Who falls between time anyway? _Keep your arms and legs inside the flying piece of rock traveling through a literal magic portal at all times!_ Jim may not have been on many rollercoasters in his life, but he'd seen enough action movies with Toby to know the rules.

Actually, his life was a rollercoaster! An infinite ride that never ended! Every loop was followed by ten more, and every time it slowed down, another drop was just around the corner. He should have known better than to jump into things without a plan. It rarely worked out for him before.

Jim held his head in his hands, thoughts roiling uselessly, muddled and full of pure _worry_ for everyone he left behind.

 _His_ Claire, _his_ Douxie, _his_ Toby, and Steve, and Blinky, and Aaarrrgghh were all probably fighting the battle to save _their_ world all alone now. 

And Jim was stuck here. _Forever._

Jim didn’t know anything about this world. Not what time he had ended up in, where he was, and even if this universe was remotely similar to his own. All he had were the clothes on his back, the amulet broken and taken someplace by Bellroc he probably couldn’t even begin to guess.

Who was he now? Without the hope of home? Without even the security of Claire to fall back on? Even when they were thrown back into Camelot, at least he had someone. Jim clenched the fabric above where the amulet had sat, torn from the cursed shard piercing his chest. The curse was gone, but what was the point? Jim… _Jim wasn’t even a Trollhunter anymore._

Jim raised his head up, blinking away tears, only for a small glint of metal to catch his eye. He wiped his face off, using a tree to get back to his feet.

Below the edge of the forest clearing were the canals, a familiar landmark of Arcadia. Light bleached the cement a dull white, the final dredges of early morning fog clearing out. He looked down, the canal floor littered with a pile of rubble beside the shadow of the bridge. No-

A pile of Troll remains…

 _This couldn’t be happening._ Jim’s breath came out in quick puffs, his vision narrowing again as he backed away from the canal. “The amulet,” Jim said to himself breathlessly. “This is the day Kanjigar died, the day I-”

**_JAMES LAKE_ **

Jim choked on his tongue.

**_JAMES LAKE_ **

“No no no! Hey! Stop!” Jim clenched his head, pacing in place, trying to will the voice out of his head. “Hey stop that!”

Jim glared back into the canal, the amulet glittering innocently from where it sat atop what was once Kanjigar the Courageous. “Sorry, wrong Jim,” he said, speaking down to an inanimate object like a crazy person. 

Or somewhat animate. Merlin never explained that part very well. _Semantics._

**_JAMES LAKE_ **

“Stop it!” Jim shouted at the voice in his head. “I’m not the right person, I’m not-”

_Wait…_

If the amulet was calling for him, it meant that _he_ existed in this universe. 

It meant that Past Jim was about to become Trollhunter. That he was about to step into a world that took away his humanity… it meant that countless deaths were about to be set into motion. Vendel, Draal, all the Trolls stolen by the Decimar Blade...

Jim's body was moving on it's own. He took three long, bounding steps and leapt up, catching the branch of a sturdy tree. It quivered and cracked a bit, struggling to support his weight. While he may be small by Troll standards, Jim was still made of stone now, or at least mostly. He kept his balance, leaping between branches, tiny slivers of light catching his skin as he moved; quickly enough to avoid falling from the trail of snapping branches he left in his wake. 

In moments, he was practically vaulting through the trees, desperately searching. His mind was blank - directionless. He was on autopilot, limbs moving despite the aches left from the curse pulled from his veins. He was forced closer and closer to the breaks in the foliage, anywhere he could see the amulet better, any place that might allow him to get to the canal before the sun burnt him up.

Still, the waterway sat uncovered, light rendering the amulet untouchable.

He felt empty as he stared down into the canal from a perch much closer to the bridge.

 _This wasn't his world. It wasn't his place to take the amulet. He had to..._ Jim's thoughts trailed off, and he slumped on a branch. What did he have to do exactly? Let the timeline play out like it was supposed to? It wasn't like it would impact his future anymore. This wasn't even _his_ universe!

Could he... let another version of Draal die? Allow another Trollmarket to fall?

This was a world where Jim was still human. Where he was still able to make breakfast for his mom, oogle at vespas in magazines, and worry about what college he was going to attend. A world where he could step into the sun and feel warmth instead of pain. A world where he and Claire had a chance to live a normal life, get married, have kids, and just experience what it was like to live without the fear of death and uncertainty hanging over their heads all the time.

No possession by Morgana that made Claire terrified of herself, no one forcing him into Trollhood. Just… living like normal people do.

Jim steadied himself, determined.

He wasn’t going to sit back and watch everyone he loved get hurt again. He couldn't. Not when he could do something about it. Not like in Unkar’s illusion. Jim may never get to be in his mom or Toby or Claire's lives again. He may have to take up a fake name and make up a fake life story with a thousand gaps glaring at him. He may have to lie to _everyone_ he used to know, to keep up a charade long enough to make sure the world didn’t end. 

But if Jim had to be a liar - a thief of someone else’s own destiny - so be it.

He was going to fix things, even if it killed him.

* * *

The first thing Jim did was dig a ditch. He had found a spot in his childhood shortcut to school where the trees hung safely over the dirt, blanketing it in shadow. Stone hands made it easier to burrow into the hardset ground, though it was very dusty from a lack of rain. Once he got deeper, it became easier to haul the dirt away. Under the immediate silt was thick topsoil that clumped better. He pushed the pile into the tangle of undergrowth surrounding the sparse forest, before hiding nearby behind a large tree.

Not even a few minutes later, the sound of wheels on dirt met his ears. Going too fast to see the hole before they were right up on it. Rider preoccupied, worrying about being late for school.

Jim winced when he heard the bike wheel collide with the hole, a faint _twing_ of a bike bell, and the loud crash of a body against the hard ground.

“Oh, Jeez, Jim. Are you okay?” 

He heard Toby dismount from his own bike, and he risked a peek around the tree to assess how badly Past Jim had been hurt.

“I think I broke my ankle, Tobes,” Past Jim groaned. _Yep,_ he had definitely heard a crack when his past self had landed. Toby helped Past Jim up, who hopped on one leg while he leant against his friend. Past Jim’s chin was scraped, blood dripping onto the dirt. His jeans were dusty, and from what Jim could see, Past Jim’s palms were just as scraped up as his face.

“Well, look on the brightside, Jimbo, at least we have an excuse for why we’re late to school today,” Toby said sympathetically, while Past Jim moaned in pain. 

“I don’t think we’re going to school today, Tobes,” Jim said back. “We should get back to the main road so I can call my mom. I hate to wake her up, but-”

“Dude! You literally just busted your leg! I don’t think your mom is going to mind,” Toby said, cutting Past Jim off. “We can leave our bikes here, I doubt anyone is gonna steal them. Especially yours.”

Jim’s old bike sat a few feet away, a dented front wheel still spinning sadly.

Past Jim moaned again.

“Just think of it as a snow day, Jimbo! A snow day, in California, with a broken leg,” Toby tried, helping Past Jim limp away. “Oooh! Can I sign your cast first? What color are you going to get? Your mom could probably pull some strings to-”

Jim sighed as he heard the duo leave, sliding down the tree to sit on the ground. Now, he just had to wait until he could grab the amulet. He couldn’t exactly waltz out into the sun this time around. Hopefully, Bular wouldn’t come back before he could get it. He remembered Strickler was at school the whole day after he found the amulet originally, so he wasn’t worried about Bular sending a Changeling to get it before him.

Bular probably didn’t trust them enough to get it. Jim didn’t blame him.

Hours from now, the sun would begin to set and he would have to start his life as the Trollhunter all over again. Only this time, he wouldn’t have Toby or Claire. He was going to have to do it with just the knowledge he had of the future. With the comfort that he had the chance to make things a little better for a second iteration of himself and everyone he loved.

That was all for the future, though. When the world felt a little less broken, in an hour when the sun didn’t leak through the leaves above him like molten fire.

Jim had a couple of hours to grieve and he wasn't going to waste them.

* * *

“Ow! Come on!”

Jim broke his fifth stick trying to retrieve the amulet from Kanjigar’s remains. It was evening now, the sun still _just_ bright enough to make the task a living hell for him. He sat back, staring forlorn at the scraggly piece of wood that betrayed him like the others. It had snapped when Jim finally managed to wriggle the edge of the amulet over a lip of stone, wedging in a gap, which led him to overbalance in panic and subsequently burn the tips of his fingers in the fading rays of sunlight. 

“Just work with me a little here! I want to get the amulet before Bular shows up,” Jim angrily murmured to his last stick, which was more like a branch with a crooked bend at one end. He stuck it out from under the bridge, mindful of the sunlight bleeding a few feet between the pile of rocks and the growing shadow of the bridge.

He had waited all afternoon for the sun to wane a bit, sinking low enough to allow the bridge’s silhouette to creep towards the amulet. With every moment the shadow grew longer, but Jim couldn’t risk the wait. That, and he was getting impatient. Anyone would be with a magical voice echoing inside their skull for _hours._

**_JAMES LAKE_ **

“Enough! I get it already!” Jim shouted, hooking the edge of the crook over the amulet, which slipped under the wood just as quickly. “You could help! I know you can float to me, you stupid hunk of junk.”

Jim grunted, angling the branch again to nudge the amulet over another shard of rock. It slid closer to the ground. He was pretty sure he would be sweating up a storm if he were still human, though his arms were getting just as stiff as he imagined they’d be in either form.

 _It was like playing the most intense claw machine game._ He laughed somewhat hysterically at that.

Jim was incrementally losing whatever sanity he had left.

“Got it!” Jim cried, finally getting the trinket to drop flat onto the concrete. He grabbed it with the end of the crook, sliding it under the bridge. Jim leaned forward, gently picking up the amulet. He dropped the stick from his other hand so he could cradle the amulet with both, settling more comfortably on his haunches. He could feel static in the air around him. The metal was still warm from the sun, blue innards pulsing faintly in the glow of evening. 

**_JAMES LAKE_ **

“Finally,” Jim sighed out, a little breathlessly. It would be so nice to have a sword again. He thumbed the silver hands, observing how the words on the outer edges shifted between Trollish and English text. It probably didn’t know what to make of him anymore. To be fair, Jim wasn't even sure if he was more Troll or human anymore either.

Jim stood, legs stiff from crouching. He was sure he had been there for a significant amount of time. The sky had just begun to streak the ground orange when he slid down into the ravine, still blue and empty. Now it was beginning to turn red, nearing dusk.

Jim pocketed the amulet, patting the dust off of his knees. He needed to get out of there before Bular came back. He didn’t want a confrontation this early, especially when he had plans that specifically banked on everyone being distracted by the location of the amulet. 

Jim hopped up into the metal framework on the underside of the bridge, balancing on a support beam. He headed in the direction of the forest - toward the public side of town. All he needed to do was get to the museum while Bular and the Changelings ran around searching for the amulet. None of them would give up an opportunity to raise their ranks by finding it first. Even Nomura would be off her game.

This was a perfect time to stop everything bad from happening. No gate to the Darklands, no Gunmar, no Eternal Night, and no Morgana. He’d worry about Bellroc and the other members of the Arcane Order later, but right now...

Jim was going to steal a piece of Killahead Bridge.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Jim, six glowing eyes had been watching from a pipe in the canal.

**Author's Note:**

> A big thanks to Le0na and Katoo! Ya'll gave me so much inspiration that I just had to write this fic. 
> 
> Also, to the best editor in the world, Le0na... thank you for dealing with my sleep deprived draft that switched tenses more than anyone reading this could imagine!
> 
> Comments = faster chapters! I live solely off of them and caffeine, so please feed my poor hermit soul. (Also, I may or may not already have chapters two and three cooling on my oven rack).


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